Live: Australia v New Zealand

David Sygall

Full-time: The Kangaroo Crew in the crowd erupt as the siren sounds with Australia finishing deserved winners. A little too much class for the Kiwis in the end. Thanks for joining me tonight for the final league match of the year. See you next year!

76m: Josh Morris penalised for a double movement. A try there would have definitely put NZ away, if the Kangaroos haven't done so already.

59m: Take a bow, Gerard Beale, who spectacularly defuses a Cooper Cronk kick but is tackled in-goal. Another set of six for the Kangaroos.

55m: Kiwis breathe easier after a Cameron Smith kicks goes dead in-goal. The Kangaroos were looking as dangerous as some of the North Queensland wildlife.

53m: Marshall finds touch near the Australian line to give his forwards a much-needed break.

50m: Luke into a gap! Offloads to Elijah Taylor! But then Hoffman spills the miracle pass from Taylor. Oh, Taylor should have shown more patience there.

46m: Great goal line defence by the Kangaroos. They earn possession back. And they make ground pretty quickly.

Kasiano's a big boy.

44m: Australian drop out now.

42m: Intercept by Darius Boyd but then ruled to be a knock on by Boyd. Rough call by the officiating officialdom. Looked to have been a rake.

41m: Early penalty to the Kiwis, against Tony Williams for tackling Issac Luke when he wasn't in line with the marker.

Second half beginneth!!!!

Interesting tweet from @NSWRL: "Almost 2 years ago today, Gerard Beale scored a try for the Jnr Roos against the Kiwis, tonight he scores for NZ against AUS #AUSvNZ"

10-10 at half time.

The half time siren has sounded at Dairy Farmers. There's been some razzle dazzle tonight! New Zealand stunned the Australians early on with an 8th minute try to Issac Luke, as they dominated the first quarter of the match. Cameron Smith got Australia on the board after 23 minutes with a slippery snake effort from dummy half.

Then it was Test match tete-a-tete nearing the end of the stanza, when James Tamou thundered across for his maiden test four-pointer before, incredibly, the plucky Kiwis jagged one back through Gerard Beale out wide.

It's an arm wrestle, a war of attrition and any other worthy cliche. A great half of footy!

38m: TRY TO NEW ZEALAND!! Sam Perrett takes a bomb, offloads to Dean Whare, who chucks it out to Beale and the winger gets across the line. What a try! Probably against the run of play because it looked like the Kiwis were looking for half time until that last play of the set - and bang!! Inu misses the tough conversion attempt. It's all locked up at 10-10.

34m: TRY TO AUSTRALIA!! Cooper Cronk delivers a short, sharp pass to 'Aussie' James Tamou and the giant forward burst into the hole and across the line. Did he have a hand laid on him? I don't think so!!! Ok, ok, Adam Blair nearly knocked it out of his hands. But 'Aussie' James has his first try. (Ok, I'll stop calling him 'Aussie'. He decided to play for Australia, not New Zealand, and all power to him.) Thurston slots over the conversion and it's 10-6 to Australia.

33m: Kieran Foran puts the ball out for New Zealand. Yes, Foran's on the field, too!

Suddenly possession is in Australia's favour.

The Lotto results are 2, 13, 40.... ah, never mind. If you won, you'll find out after the game.

29m: Josh Morris tackled over the sideline by the desperate NZ defence. It took three of them close to the line.

27m: Kiwis on the ropes as Australia looks for a double strike! Cronk gives it the mini-bomb treatment and Beale takes it well for New Zealand - but he's been pulled back and tackled in goal. Drop out for the Kiwis and they'll have to take another set in defence. The Kangaroos are warming up!!

23m: TRY TO AUSTRALIA!! Oh! Like a hot knife through butter, Cameron Smith carves them up from dummy half! But Thurston's missed the conversion attempt from out wide. 6-4 to New Zealand.

22m: Beale cleans up Thurston's grubber in goal but he's tackled there and NZ has to drop out.

21m: Luke throws a forward pass and the Kangas will have good field position by the end of this set.

17m: The Australians have woken up!! Thurston chips and they go up, but the ball gets knocked out of play, over the sideline. NZ ball now from their 10m.

15m: Great take of a bomb by Josh Morris and earns the penalty as Gerard Beale tackles the man dangerously as he went up. Australia to work it out of their own 20m.

Oh, by the way, Johnathan Thurston's out there! I didn't notice..

13m: 'Baby' Sam Kasiano has come off the ground for a breather after a solid opening 12 minutes.

11m: Now NZ has lost the ball and there will be a scrum. Big let off for Australia. You don't want to be tackling too much in this heat..

NZ completed five from five, Aus two from four. Kiwis all over the Aussies.

10m: Another mistake from Australia as Paul Gallen messes up the play the ball. Come on, boys!! Simple errors!

8m: TRY! New Zealand 6 - Australia 0 as smiley Inu pots the conversion. Luke was awarded the try after a video ref investigation. There was no separation as the tacklers did their best and no double movement as the powerful hooker grounded the ball.

8m: Inu gets so close! Tackled just before the line - and then Issac Luke burrows across!! It's gone to the video ref.........................

6m: Penalty against Australia. 'Aussie' James Tamou the culprit. New Zealand in good field position with six tackles now.

3m: Billy Slater and Josh Morris keeping NZ on their toes early, looking for pace out wide. But as the ball comes back in field Tony Williams fumbles in the play the ball. Poor ball security from the youngster.

1m: We're underway! Australia has the ball first.

Issac Luke leading the HAKA now!!

National anthems being played now (while I quickly try to finish off my pad thai before kick off!). I hope everything's set for this clash. Should be fascinating with so many NRL heroes running around. There's been some belters between these sides in recent years. Will this be another one?

Rabs assures us "it's a wonderful atmosphere" at the ground. The visitors have just made their way out on to the field. The Aussies are walking out now to a big reception.

Welcome - wherever you are - to the Herald's live blog coverage of the Kangaroos v Kiwis match in Townsville.

New Zealand has never played a Test in Townsville. Australia has played four, each against Papua New Guinea, and won them all.

This is a one-off Test, one of the last international hit outs before next year's World Cup in the UK. You can expect that the players will not only be looking to do their best for their country, but also make sure they secure a berth for the World Cup.

Stephen Kearney is in charge of the Kiwis, despite getting marched from Parramatta this season and Tim Sheens maintains the Australian coaching job after being moved along from Wests Tigers.

Quite a few new faces on both teams, including Matt Scott, Greg Bird and the epic Tony Williams among the Australians' new faces from the last match between these sides, in April at Eden Park, while New Zealand has included the likes of Sam Perrett, Krisnan Inu and Sam Kasiano in their line up.